Monthly Archives: February 2012

I am thrilled! Murder is a Family Business has just received the coveted CataNetwork Reviewers’ Choice Award for 2011. “CataNetwork reviewers consider your book one of the best that they have read and reviewed this year. Thank you for sharing your talent with all the readers as you entertain us with your stories.” Their webswite is: http://singletitles.com/?page_id=6830. And days later I got a great review from NightOwl, where the reviewer praised this first book of the Alvarez Family Murder Mystery Series, saying the “only downside was now I want to go get a cat.” How fab is that? Both were totally unexpected and I am grateful. Frankly, I had not been paying too much attention to Murder is a Family Business, as A Wedding to Die For has been garnering all the nominations and awards lately. I won the ‘silver’ over at Preditors and Editors for Best Mystery, 2011, and I am one of the finalists for EPIC Best eBook Mystery of the year, 2012. None of this would have been possible without my fellow authors and the network of people who have been supportive and wonderful. Thank you, one and all!! Hey, I’m stoked! I’m happy! I feel like a soccer mom with great kids, only my kids are books! Save Save

MIDNIGHT OIL Shipwrecked on a legendary island, how can a witch rescue her boyfriend if she can’t even phone home? BLURB: Kat is a nervous wreck waiting for her boyfriend’s first visit to her Arctic island home. He doesn’t show up, so she’s sure he’s given her the brushoff. When she learns he’s disappeared, she sets out on a mission to find him. Things go wrong from the start. Kat is thrown overboard during a violent storm, while her brother and his girlfriend are captured by a mutant island tribe. The mutants hold the girlfriend hostage, demanding the teens recover the only thing that can make the mutants human again–the magical Midnight Oil. Mustering every bit of her Wiccan magic, Kat rises to the challenge. She invokes her magical skills, learns to fly an ultralight, meets a legendary sea serpent, rescues her boyfriend, and helps a friendly air spirit win the battle against her spiteful sibling. On top of it all, she’s able to recover the Midnight Oil and help the hapless mutants in the nick of time. EXCERPT: Kat sprinted up the cobbled pathway to Mordita’s door. She remembered the first time she’d come to the old witch’s home, she’d gotten zapped by the spike and horseshoe doorknocker. She learned fast—don’t use the knocker. She rapped on the wood instead. The door swung open. Kat walked into the dimly-lit living room, and the door closed behind her. Glancing around, she waited for her eyes to adjust. She didn’t see Mordita, but her familiar, a fat orange tiger cat, curled on one of the damask-covered chairs by the fireplace. “Kudzu, where’s your mistress?” The cat opened one eye a squinch and nodded toward the door leading to the kitchen. “Thanks.” Kat hurried over to the kitchen door. “Anyone home?” One…

I am in the cookie business. It just goes to show you. When you become an author, you become the chief, cook and bottle-washer of your literary career. I should have known ‘baker’ was right around the corner.I stole this idea from another mystery writer and cyber buddy, Cindy Sample, author of Dying For a Date. Cindy makes cookies to be given out to anyone who purchases her book at events. In fact, it got so popular, she started selling the cookies and giving away the book with each purchase. Now that’s enterprising! Cindy’s cookies are in the outline of a dead body, sort of an offed gingerbread man, and they are very cute. See below and to the right.If imitation is the sincerely form of flattery then consider yourself flattered, Cindy!Back to me. I haven’t baked anything in decades, so I prevailed upon my friends to reacquaint me with the process. First, having decided I wanted to have the cookies in the form of one of my on-going characters, Tugger, the cat, I sent away for some cat shaped cookie cutters. They took 3-weeks to arrive. Meanwhile, I started planning. Good friend, fellow writer, and cracker-jack pastry chef, Baird Nuckolls, gave me some cookie dough she had in her freezer. I knew it would be yummy, her being a pastry chef and all. I rolled it out, cut it into little cat shapes and baked them. I was a nervous wreck. I haven’t baked since the Magna Carta was signed. I was there, you know. Third rock from the King. But I digress. After the cookies cooled I tried to frost one of them. ‘Tried’ is the operative word. It took me over one hour to decorate one cookie. You can see the results in the pics. It was…

Please help me welcome friend and fellow author, Catherine Evans Latta! I adore her and she’s a very fine writer. Beirut Summer, a heartfelt and stirring book of poetry, is a book I tend to leave out on the coffee table as an offering for anyone to pick up and read. It’s easy to become immersed in, and you find yourself going from poem to poem again and again! For more about this wonderful book and this fascinating woman, visit her website at http://catherineevanslatta.com/ Let’s get to know Catherine a little better with her answers to the interview! 1. What is your favorite book? No one favorite 2. Who is your favorite writer? Scott Turow 3. If the answers to 1 & 2 are different, why? I read a lot 4. How old were you when you were first published? Not counting school,: 43 5. What writing style do you most abhor? Introspective self examination 6. What is your favorite writing cliché? Don’t Know 7. What is your favorite word? Just no favorite, but one’s I just try to avoid – like “just” 8. When and how do you write? (typewriter, Mac, in a café, for four hours each morning, etc?) PC 4hrs mid morning to afternoon 9. What is your greatest fear when you first turn in a manuscript? Typos and overused words 10. In what era do you wish you’d been born? I’m happy with this one 11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? JUST EVEN 12. Which talent would you most like to have? Artistic 13. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Getting poetry published 14. Who is your favorite hero of fiction? No one in particular –read too many books 15. How would you like to die? Old and suddenly! ———————– See below…

Yesterday my final guest ‘broke bread’ with me on Blogging into 2012 aka This and That. This month long journey has seen a variety of men and women writers presented, one highlighted each day. They cover every genre in writing imaginable, whether it be fantasy, romance, scifi, paranormal, YA, mystery, memoir, or fill in the blank. These 31 authors come from different walks of life and different parts of the world. Some are young, some are old, some aren’t talking. Many have never met in the flesh, all of us being pretty much cyber buddies, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t genuine, shared devotion. What each one has in common with the other is talent, dedication, sincerity, and good will. Most importantly, whatever life has dealt them, each one has chosen to write. Possibly, like me, they are driven to write.In rereading the interviews, I am moved by how many consider their children to be their greatest accomplishment, how they appreciate their loved ones, how blessed most of them feel. I am touched by how the very act of writing and joy of being published spurs them on. I should say, spurs us on. For I strive to be one of these people, most certainly. It is devoutly to be wished.I want to thank each author for taking the time to visit This and That, and for sometimes sharing personal or little known facts. Thank you for your generosity, your kindness, and your openness of spirit. I treasure each of you. —————— Below is the list of guests for Blogging into 2012:January 1 – Roseanne Dowell January 2 – Terri Mann January 3 – Grace DeLucaJanuary 4– Laura NovakJanuary 5 – Dale Thompson January 6 – Gail Roughton Branan January 7 – Ginger SimpsonJanuary 8 – Karen Cote January 9…

The Culinary Art of Murder, Book 6 of the Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries, is now available at Amazon!

Blurb:
Lee’s Uncle Tío is smitten with the lady guest chef at a Silicon Valley culinary art institute. When the lady is arrested for two murders, a fellow chef, and the dishwasher, Lee agrees to help find the real killer. But undercover work at the institute proves to be more dangerous than whipping up a chocolate soufflé. Can she find the murderer before her own goose is cooked? If it turns out to be the ambitious southern belle chef, will Tío ever forgive Lee for sending his new lady love to jail?

Honeymoons Can Be Murder is now available for download only at Amazon!

When PI Lee Alvarez goes on her honeymoon with bridegroom, Gurn Hanson, they find a dead woman practically on their doorstep. Kauai breezes may be soft, but there are gale force winds of accusation against Gurn. Will Lee find the real killer before her new hubby gets sent to a Hawaiian hoosegow?

Books

The reviews are in!
Bestthrillers.com - The Culinary Art of Murder "The Bottom Line: This cozy mystery has it all – romance, suspense, comedy and a detective you’ll fall hard for."